


A Whole Alphabet Between Alpha and Omega

by JayBarou



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: A+ Parenting, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alpha/Omega, M/M, Other, gender non conforming, growing up from teen years onwards, terrible parenting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-11
Updated: 2020-01-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:35:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 7,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22150405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JayBarou/pseuds/JayBarou
Summary: When the expectation is to be a certain way, parents struggle to make their round-peg children fit the square-peg hole. Children, on the other hand, seek the round-peg hole.
Relationships: Loki/Tony Stark
Comments: 15
Kudos: 56





	1. Expectations: Be an Alpha

**Author's Note:**

> The chapters focused on the parents will start with "expectations" the ones focused on the boys will be "facts".

The help was probably listening in with how loud they were being, but they were paid handsomely to hear, see and forget. Everyone in the vicinity would have been able to hear the shouts if they didn't live in a place big enough to have an echo. The fight was also witnessed by the decorated halls; the paintings of old, the artifacts that reminded everyone of the reverent place of history, tradition, and status. As if the people in the paintings would step out to judge the family spat.

“I don’t know anymore how to tell you this! I’m not the alpha you wanted me to be! And I’ll never be!”

And then a slam of the door that made the paintings rattle in their places. 

And then a pair of worried parents.

As many people have learned through the years, worried parents are one of the most dangerous things that can happen to a child. It is a fact of life generation after generation. It didn’t matter if you were in Asgard, Midgard or Fairigard. Good intentions paved the way, and those paved ways connected one set of powerful parents to another set of parents. And together they could get very far into hell, indeed.

And that is how, after many fights that could be summed up as just one, one set of concerned parents met another set of concerned parents, although with different worries. Or more accurately, that’s how meddlesome María did her research in the society scandals and worked her charm to meet fretful Frigga over elven dark wine. It happened in a very much rehearsed scenario at the palace terrace, overlooking the training grounds.

“I hear your boys are growing into strong alphas,” María complimented politely.

“They are. They have a strong spirit too, but you know how it is, you have your boy too.”

“Oh, do I know!” The woman laughed trying to put all the tired amusement she could into it. “My two strong-spirited Stark boys. At least we don’t have the weight of monarchy on our shoulders.”

“Oh, no, no, my dear." Frigga turned to look at her directly for the first time in the whole evening. "Don’t think I don’t know how the business world works. It amounts to the same thing.”

“I have no doubt Tony will be capable of handling everything in due time.” María wasn’t sure she was telling the truth. She sipped her cup to hide her doubts. If Tony kept insisting, it would go public, he’d ruin his reputation, and it would be very hard to save him then.

“Is that his wish?” Frigga was inspecting her, maybe she had sniffed her lie, but the air was saturated with their pheromone-suppressing perfumes. María had applied extra that morning because Asgardians were not humans, and everyone knew that foreigners didn’t respect a bonded omega the way Americans did. Well, not that it was completely respected on America either, but María knew what she had been told. She wasn't willing to go without protection.

“Not now. But his dreams are… complicated. He’ll understand what’s best for him in time.”

“He should meet my Loki,” Frigga sighed, sipping from her cup. “He’s had those fantasies in his head for a long time, but he is starting to see reason.”

“Oh, yes, Loki. People talk, if you know what I mean. But boys at this age are like that. What made him see reason?” María looked sadly at her empty cup and a cupbearer refilled it without prompting, coming out of nowhere, leaving for places unknown.

“We cut off all his bad influences, but I’m afraid it was time what did it in the end. Just time and his own disappointment. Life tends to put everyone in their place. He’s been much quieter lately.”

“Hmm, maybe they should talk indeed. He sounds like the kind of influence that my Tony needs.”

Frigga emptied her cup and had it refilled. María was not sure if it was her second, third or more. “Loki has been asking us to go with the elves to ‘explore and learn’”. Even the stones under their feet would have heard the sarcasm. “Or with the Vanir, or the faeries, and he even dared suggest the dwarves, but you know the dwarves.” She laughed short and dismissively. “They are good crafters, but I wouldn’t trust my son’s education to _them.”_

“Dwarves!” María laughed with her, because that’s what politeness forced her to do, but she couldn’t help but wonder if Frigga would say the same about humans when her back was turned. Howard dealt a lot with dwarves, maybe they were unknowingly putting their reputation at risk. She would recommend to Howard that they do their dealings more discretely. 

“Humans, however, we are similar, and with you to look over him, I wouldn’t mind. My Loki could use some friends, you know, the last years he’s been so isolated.”

“Oh, don’t make me start.” But she gulped down a big swallow, getting started. “Tony says it is not him isolating himself, that it is us, or our way of life or the age gap in MIT, but it is him! What do you expect when you go around saying such things and scaring off everyone? I don’t tell him that, of course, what kind of mother would do that?”

Frigga stared at her hard, but her voice was warm. “Do tell him, María; he is not going to learn if you don’t. Making friends is not about how they feel about you, but about how they perceive you. Rubbing elbows with other alphas. Finding status in the pack. The key is the connection.”

María nodded and looked at the training grounds. Thor was being thrown around a lot and he stood immediately to go straight at his teacher. Loki was on the side doing nothing, or maybe he was enchanting his sword or something. He was completely different from Tony, and still, María knew the rumors, they were similar. “It is a waste of status, is what he is.”

Both of them emptied and refilled their glasses.

“Our boys have it so easy, and they just… waste it!”

“Yes, I had to marry Odin, come to Asgard, all before all those intergalactic Omega laws were set, before safe rut suppressants were invented, and _they_ think they have it hard?”

“They don’t know how lucky they are,” María hummed sadly into another sip of wine.

“No they don’t, but let’s not stray. What would you say to taking care of my Loki for a few months each year?”

“Human or Asgardian months?” María laughed.

“If Stark’s invention works it won’t matter.”

“Is Odin mad about the permanent time alignment?” She said with casual interest.

“He is, but that way he’ll be distracted when I ask him if our boy can stay with you for a while.”

“That’s perfect... short term,” María was emboldened by the wine. “But I was thinking, what if we plan a little further ahead? With Midgard and Asgard aligning, it would be terribly convenient to have an alliance.”

“Oh, my dear, they say great minds think alike, I did mention having to marry Odin, right?”

“And of course, if they are fixed they would be the right kind.”

María grinned, having her suspicions and rumors confirmed. Their boys’ problems were one and the same but in different directions. She hadn’t been completely sure, since the Aesir royals were so discrete and the prince’s scandals were in so many directions that it became confusing. This would solve all their problems.


	2. Facts: Contrary spirit

It was set; his input was not needed. Loki was sent to Midgard because parents know best, but the reason why he didn't drag his feet was because Loki wanted to go as far as possible and travel, travel, travel, as far as he could, far from Asgard. Something that had also applied mentally the last years. Loki had mastered the art of the “dead inside” stare, and it was his default when he was in Asgard. He had found quickly that prolonged use had the downside of actually making him feel dead inside. That was when he realized he could feel alive when he wasn’t surrounded by people who were trying to force him into a role. Hence traveling.

Midgard was just a convenient escape for the alien prince and he had said so on the first night. Tony had no problem with this, one less person to keep at arm's length. They both had seen the manipulation immediately and forged an alliance 100% based on doing the opposite of what their parents wanted. Since their parents wanted them to spend time together; time apart it was.

It was easy. Some days one escaped while the other pretended both were at Tony’s room, which was helped by Loki’s magic or Tony’s mechanical tricks. The Starks were too busy with the permanent convergence to pay much attention to them. Not even Jarvis had time for them when he was supposed to drive the Starks around personally. The one evening they spent together, they went to the cinema because María had the vague feeling of needing to do something family-like with the children, to keep Frigga happy. And the cinema meant a lot of time spent in the dark in silence, so there was less awkwardness for everyone involved.

When they were left to their own devices, they went out together to the street’s corner and then they split up. Some days (hangover days) both stayed in bed or in the same room, but ignoring each other and the world at large.

It was convenient for everyone. And they built the professional camaraderie of workers with opposite shifts. A polite smile here or there was the only price for their freedom. Their time was spent that way, and both had stories to tell their parents with the other sewn into them as an afterthought.

All in all, maybe a grand total of a couple of thousand words were exchanged between them including the first days when Tony had shown Loki the guest room, how to work the microwave, and his parents’ schedule to avoid each other as much as possible.

Tony had even made a point of sleeping in Loki’s bed some nights when he wasn’t there so their smell would mix and make his parents happy. Loki had given him his enthusiastic consent to further the deceit and parents had been assuaged that year.

The first summer was easy, but then Maria had sent Tony to Asgard and things had been different.

“Well, this is bad,” Tony said, peeking out of the golden bedroom. “Are the guards out there all the time?”

Loki hummed from the adjacent bedroom.

“This is going to be so boring. Can’t we go out and then split up?”

Loki hummed again, but it was in the negative.

“Yeah, I heard your parents' explanation too. The guards will follow. Still…”

Loki hummed again.

“I hate you so much.” Tony sighed. “I know I agreed to this, but…”

Loki hummed again.

“I wish you hadn’t left me here with just a clone.”

Loki hummed absently again from his bed, where he was stuck reading the same line once and again for the whole summer.

Tony hadn’t known there was going to be a Big Brother as well as big brother surveillance when he agreed to help Loki escape from the realm to stay away from each other, but he knew what to do.

First, he explored Loki’s rooms, went through all his books and dissected the guy as much as he could, which wasn’t much, because most of the royalty’s rooms were designed to be seen by servants and had more opulence than personality. Loki probably had hidden anything even remotely interesting behind a spell, he was a smart guy, he wouldn't trust Tony. Trying to get over those defenses was a major entertainment. Which didn't mean the activity was fun on itself, rather it should be seen as proof of how boring everything else was. 

Second, he could experiment with the clone. He might have wondered theoretically once or twice about _using_ it, in the lewdest meaning of the word, but the temptation had been removed swiftly because the clone was a long-term thing that couldn’t spare energy, so the clothes were part of the clone, it smelled like nothing, not even like suppressants and it didn’t really open its mouth. Boring.

It was a passive thing, but he could drag it to a few places where it would still read and hum when asked. Tony got away with being in a lot of places just by having another book and pretending he was reading with Loki. The kitchens, the apothecary, the nursery, meeting rooms, the highest tower, the poisons garden… That had been quite fun actually.

Third, he had a lot of time to plan his revenge against Loki. Like cutting two of the legs of Loki’s bed slightly so he would sleep and feel like falling all the time, or hiding fish in inconvenient corners for it to rot and smell, messing with things inside the drawers so they wouldn’t open more than an inch…

That’s how they eluded their second time of forced cohabitation. The Royal family had been too concerned with the consequences of the Stark time convergence to discover there was something wrong with their plan.

Tony had only seen Loki the last day at the Bifrost. He had just returned and occupied his clone’s place. He had the brightest smile Tony had ever seen on him, and he felt a little guilty for the itching powder in his bed. The poor guy lived like a guarded prisoner the whole year, he only lived a real life for those summers once a year.

Then Tony remembered that he lived pretty much the same most of the year too. Howard had been just too busy the last year and a half to be the usual parent that he knew all too well.


	3. Expectations: Checkpoint

This time they had moved their meeting from the terrace to Frigga's antechamber, but María wasn't sure why. There were slightly better couches perhaps, but the privacy remained the same, with interruptions and servants who kept their glasses full and their ears open. It was only bonded or omega servants in the area, so maybe that was the reason to change location, to feel more at ease. Whatever the reason, María was not convinced.

Still, Frigga didn't shy away from discussing their plan in front of the servants, perhaps because of all that flowing wine. María would bring a human bottle next time to keep up appearances. 

“Have you noticed any change, dear?” Frigga said, twirling a strand of silk around her finger. 

“Not really, no.” María fidgeted with her feet in her heels; one size too big, but so so perfect for her dress. She had borrowed the pair that Tony had hidden in a drawer, but could never use outside of his room. Alphas couldn't be seen with heels, of course. 

“Time. I keep telling you. It will be time what fixes them.” Frigga was looking at the door, like she was waiting for something or someone, and still fidgeting with the silk strand. Was she nervous? Maybe... Maybe María wasn't supposed to be in those rooms? Maybe Odin had forbidden it. Suddenly their meeting was infinitely more interesting. 

“Hmmm." María thought about their sons. She had seen them together, absolutely polite. They had spent a long time together, they had shared many things, and she could tell because a mother knows those things. But... She felt like there was something missing. They had been together so much that their smell was mixing for crying out loud, but Tony's behaviour was... not changed, not really. It was that when Loki was there, both Howard and herself were reluctant to start a fight. It troubled her. "What if being together makes them worse instead of nudging each other to the right path?” Oh, the wine. She shouldn't have said that. 

Frigga fixed her with that stubborn stare that María was not yet completely immune to.

“María. We have plans. We won’t let that get in the way.”

She hoped she was right.


	4. Fact: Don't Get Caught

The next year at the Stark mansion, the summer had been going well. Loki had managed to find again the human friend he had made two years before, Endwi, and he had joined the man in a pretty tame party that somehow turned into an orgy. Endwi was as depraved as they came, Loki knew, he wasn’t surprised. Most things around that man turned into sex spontaneously, from conversations to films.

Loki had learned much that night, even if he had been teasing more than quite joining in the action yet. Since he was and looked like the human equivalent of 16 people left him alone most of the time. He was a temptation, but there was always someone willing to distract any potential lovers if Loki showed any doubt at all. Oddly empathic people, those orgy-goers.

Loki had his own reasons to avoid going further than teasing. His main reason was not exactly shyness, but shyness made a perfect cover for him. At the party, there had been enough pretty nameless humans of all the four genders combined to indulge in teasing and tasting here and there, pushing some boundaries without touching some others. An enjoyable evening all and all.

He didn’t know that someone in the middle of the heat, sweat, and smells of sex and pheromones had been paid to sneak in and take pictures of one of the pretty things, who happened to be connected to some politician in a way he didn't care for.

In the other part of town, Tony was having the time of his life with some socialite young leeches who had taken him to drink, drive, and climb a fountain to put a traffic cone on top of it. They had disappeared quickly as the cockroaches they were when the statue broke and Tony hit his head on the marble side. He had been out of it only for a moment, but he had been seen and photographed, because of course it had to happen to him. Jarvis would be so disappointed...

And both pictures had been published in the gossip magazines.

Nothing would have happened if the pictures had been published a week apart, or at different magazines that could contradict each other: a scandal is a scandal is a scandal. Another Tuesday at the Stark Mansion. But both pictures time-stamped them at opposite sides of the city at roughly the same time. It would have been impossible to drive from one point to the other in time to be together in both.

And Maria Stark might not know what happened under her own roof, but she knew what was happening in the society pages.

“What is the meaning of this?”

Lies were not enough, their cover stories were too weak because they had no idea what the other had been up to. Tony had been quietly jealous of being invited to an orgy. Especially jealous because at MIT he was seen as too young by mostly everyone. Loki had been aghast because once their parents found out, and they would, he would be forced to wear the suppressants, or be forced to make a tour to clean his image doing thor-things, or they would ban him from the library and all his hiding places, or even worse, he'd be locked in his room without anything to do but think of what he had done, for weeks.

That was the summer when Frigga and María switched to forcing them to write letters.


	5. Expectation: Sword of Damocles

María arrived with a smile and a bottle of Merlot that she personally liked. Her best clothes were never enough to impress the Asgardians, but she kept trying, this time with a dress so light it almost floated around her with every step. Some days she thought Asgard changed its fashion sense just to spite her, because on her way to the castle she had seen very heavy cloths that dragged behind the omegas with some style, but not the style she remembered from the last time. So she was old-fashioned again! To be beaten by the prim queen again! Life was just not fair to her.

She was shown to Frigga's quarters once again, and sure enough, she was wearing some heavy dress that looked vaguely like corduroy, but with swirl patterns. Very dark and accented with gold.

"Oh, there you are."

And she wore it like it was nothing.

"Here I am, and I brought a gift!"

"How kind of you, I'm sure the handmaids will appreciate it. Now let us open a good bottle of Svatarwine and talk."

The bottle was taken from María's hands. He had no other option but to accept the fact that she was now bottle-less and sat by the queen as a cup of Svatarwine, apparently, appeared at her hand by one of those ubiquitous servers.

"You know? I almost had to fire one of mine." She said absentmindedly sipping away as she saw the retreating back of the young unbonded omega.

"Huh?" Frigga said in a tone that made clear that she couldn't care less. The colour of her wine seemed to hold her entire attention.

"He called the police on us," María added, trying to pique her interest, but fruitlessly. "They were going on and on about children abuse, but they had already seen some news about Tony, they had no problem trusting Howard with the discipline of our son."

"Of course, of course." Frigga was still distracted lost in the bubbles, but she had lighted up somewhat at the mention of Tony. "What did the boy say?"

"Nothing, of course, there is nothing to be said. An alpha man has a right to punish his son however he sees fit and Tony knows better than to oppose his father in these issues. Even if he did, who would the police believe? The upstanding Stark, or the bratty teenager? No, everything was under control, it was just a scare. And in case something like this happens again, I made sure he knew what would happen to the likes of him if he was taken from us, how he would be treated without our protection, you know?"

"I do." Frigga shuddered and drank, as if to erase the afterimage of her imagination. "It wouldn't be nice. And for you two it would be even worse! Imagine the press! And... you didn't fire the help after that?"

"He has been working for us for a long time, and he has been loyal until now, he just had a slipup."

"But I hope he didn't walk away, without some..." Frigg twirled the liquid in her cup. "Warning."

"Oh, no, no. Howard sent him to help a friend of the family; Mrs. Carter. To keep him busy and let him time to think." She sipped again, wondering how much to tell in case it turned against her. "She's actually Tony's godmother, but she is always so busy, the poor thing. She hardly ever has the time to visit. It will be good for her too, to have Jarvis there." María lamented once again Peggy's absence; having another European lady around did wonders to her homesickness. She had the feeling that she and Howard had had a fight at some point, but neither had ever said a word about it. "Oh, and of course we have forbidden him any contact with Tony."

"That's more like it. He can't be left unattended, putting thoughts on a young man's head like that!"

María shrugged. "He can't afford to quit in the States, not with his wife in the state she is, so I'm sure he will behave from now on."

"I'm glad it is settled, now..." Frigga ignored the servant who brought a jug at least as big as his head. It was a beautiful glass jug with a metal wire knotted around the base, the belly, and the handle and with a spout that magically poured when a cup was close.

The servants left and there was silence, only broken when the queen had made sure they were alone. "Tell me about the letters."


	6. Facts: Postdata, I Hate Them

The human's letters were always in a cheap paper torn from a notebook. Loki would resent the lack of respect, but he was sure Tony did it to spite his mother, so he quite enjoyed the paper with blue lines. Tony never followed the blue lines either, he wrote sideways or with a weird spacing than only matched the lines every fifth line or so. He wasn't sure if that was on purpose too, but that would upset Frigg, who always insisted on doing things the precise way, so he liked that too about the letters.

> “Hi, Loki:
> 
> "I hope this letter finds you well. No, my mother also swears up and down that she doesn’t open the letters. I have sent an eyelash in the envelope to make sure your mother doesn’t either.”

Loki _did_ find an eyelash in the envelope. And that was bad, because both of them had not shared much over the years, but they were both quite good liars thanks to their parents’ control. Tony knew Loki was clever. And if Frigga had read the letter and didn’t find an eyelash in it she would have panicked and added one of her own. So it made sense to send an empty letter just to check if it would reach him still empty. Loki blew the eyelash with a bitter but amused gesture, it was even enchanted black.

> “Hey, Gears, the eyelash was there.
> 
> "I was pleasently surprised to find our parents are keeping their hands away form these letters. Since we are not being read, I wonder if you would be kind enough to tell me more about the stories of the city that killed their queen and then the royal family before behaeding the nobles."

Loki amused himself thinking about topics that would make their parents froth at the mouth. Maybe it was a touch too obvious, but who cared. Their parents couldn't come to them and say so. They would risk their lie, and Loki knew how well his parents nurtured a good lie. So it was safe for them to say all kinds of outrageous things and make them guess which ones were true. They did try to throw in some truths to keep them unbalanced.

> "Hi, Tricks,
> 
> Since we are not going to see each other in some time, do take care. I didn’t like the guards at your door that summer. They kept asking me questions about your schedule and your likes when you weren't looking. It might be nothing, you know? But they kept asking, like they wanted to know when you’d be alone in your room or when the room would be empty, and I think they might be up to something.”

Tony’s trick could have some very nasty consequences for innocent guards, but neither of them didn’t care too much. Consequences were something that they either paid in blood, or something that they couldn't afford to keep in their conscience, no middle ground.

> “Hey, Gears,
> 
> You have nothing to worry about. Suddenly and without apparent reason, around the time your letter came too, my parents decided that I was prepared to defend myself at least within the palace. I no longer have guards at my door.”

And so on and on, all their correspondence was carefully created to confuse. Their favorite pastime was referencing letters that didn’t exist to make their spies think they had missed the last envelope somehow.

> “In response to your letter of the 15 of September, how dare you, of course.”

When there was no letter on the 15 of September.

> "You were not paying attention when I told you about the poisons. Just look it up, I sent it!"

But that was not their only weapon in their mind games.

> "What's up, Tricks?
> 
> "I should introduCe yoU to one of My friends, he hAs shown mE a lot of new plAces to hang out. And tHere is at leAst one baNd that I wanT you to sEe and reView, it woUld be hilaRIous. I desigNed a videoGame from sCratch this week, it's been a laZy week, but it wAs goOd foR stretcHing mY coDing fingeRs. I miGht seLl it undercOver and kEep the moNey for a Rainy dAy.

Loki squinted at the page for a long time: icumaeaahanit... no, it didn't make sense. And why send a code if it was so easy to spot? They had never discussed codes either. Unless it was some common code in human culture? But then it was a message that any human would know and Loki wouldn't. It didn't make sense, but he wasn't going to spend too long looking at the riddle. He suspected it was not important. The human was quite clever and wouldn't have made such a beginner's mistake. 

> "Hey, Gears,
> 
> "Why a Rainy dAy? Is there a spending tradition among humans that I'm not aware of? Also, I think your capitalization was somewhat off in the last letter. I hope you understand that if there was a code to decrypt you never gave me the key, right? If it is a new aesthetic, I'm compelled to inform you of HoW UgLy It Is."

And the reply, of course, proved him right. Furthermore, it made him respect the human slightly more, which was interesting because even with the fair number of letters they had sent each other, they knew next to nothing about their lives. Too many lies; assuming any of it was true would be a grave mistake. But the brilliance and mockery, that he could trust.

> "Alo Lolo,
> 
> "Nah, no code, I just thought I'd give something to do to anyone trying to snoop. You know, like, enrichment for captive animals. Anyone bored enough to read this needs the enricment, believe me. Now, let me tell you about this new project. I have lost contact with a friend, because of problems with the police, but with the free time I'm going to create a personality from a computer! Have you learned yet how many degrees you have to bow if you are visiting a royal at a casual meeting? Or is there something actually interesting going on with you? How is the affair with the paesant girl going?"

Loki smirked at the last bit. His mother would have an aneurysm, she would tail every girl he met closely to see who was the girl, and that would mean chaos that he could use to escape at some point. He would make sure he stopped to talk and compliment every peasant girl he bumped into for the next month. He would repay the favor to Tony in his next letter.

> "I'm sure you have broken into your father's workshop many times, so..."

> “But you know, I mentioned my plans for the future in my last letter, just read it there if you have not burnt it yet.”

> “Hey, I think I sent you my father’s secret plans by mistake. Mind destroying them? I’ll get in trouble otherwise.”

> “You know the thing we discussed in Midgard the last time at Fleming’s Road? Now I know: pregnant!”

Never an ounce of truth, but lots of fun, even if technically they still didn’t know each other.


	7. Expectations: Patience

María had been agonizing over the gala, the drinks, the looks, the music. Howard had his own things to do so he wouldn't attend, but that meant that she had to take care of everything at the inauguration of the Carbonel Foundation. She had already been alone during the whole thing, for months, the paper-pushing, the haggling with sharks, the care to make sure it didn't become a money-laundry scam, setting it up and managing the press, hiring people for the charity, making sure the money was being used correctly... She had only wanted Howard to be there for the press, good publicity, and more donations, of course, but he hadn't liked the idea in the first place, so, she should have expected this.

It was a disaster. The ceiling was too high, which made the decorations look scarce, the curtains were a shade darker than what she had asked for, there were too many chairs, and not enough flowers, and the drinks! Not to mention the chaos of personnel, why couldn't alphas be a bit more... careful! She knew exactly what she wanted, so why did all the alphas around her think that she'd want their sudden "improvements"?

But the worst mistake of all, the one that had already condemned her since the very beginning, the real reason why the shade of pearl white was making her want to scream into a vase or something, that one was her fault. She had made that single one mistake when she was making the guest-list. She had invited everyone whose name rippled far. Of course she had invited the Asgardian Royal Family. But she had expected the usual polite refusal. But no! Life had to keep sending her wrinkled goods.

Odin wouldn't come, the princes had been sent somewhere else, so that left...

"Maria!"

"Frigga, my friend!" María turned slowly while she composed her nervous smile into something more confident. "You came! You really came! And early too!"

"Of course, my Maria, how could I not? Especially when I heard you were... huh... so alone." Was that a jibe? It felt slightly less cold than usual, but it was Frigga. "I thought; if Maria's husband can't be bothered to show his face, well! Someone will have to! And do you have anyone at all to help?"

Fine, yes, Frigga. Subtly insulting was her thing. María was never completely sure if she was another elite shark or just blind to what came out of her mouth because she was so far above everyone. But in María's experience, you had to assume the first one or risk a slow social death.

"Howard wanted to come, but he had a very important meeting to attend to."

"Until two am when the gala ends? Isn't he in town? He could have come once he finishes..." No. María had her moments of doubt, but that woman was digging her claw in the wound on purpose.

"Mrs. O'Stark?" One of the flower people interrupted to tell her that they had found the lost van with the remaining flowers and it was on its way. She nodded and dismissed them.

"Why did that servant call you that?"

"Huh? The... Mrs? Because I'm married."

"No, the other."

"Huh... the O? It's a respectful way to call an omega here, especially a bonded one. I hear some people changed their surnames when they came to the US because it made some alphas sound like omegas, isn't that funny?"

"Not what I meant either, dear. He called you Stark."

"Oh! _Oh._ Yes. That, here they take the husband's surname when married."

"Do you realize the servant called you three things and none of them were actually you?"

"Acutely, dear. That's why I fought so much to call this the Carbonel Foundation. I had to lose my surname to integrate here."

"That is awful!"

"No, dear, that's life, remember? It is what we are trying to teach our children."

"Of course, of course. Where did you leave him tonight, by the way?"

And María? She had absolutely no idea. Tony was probably studying, maybe. She had been too busy. Tony was in class, wasn't he? Oh, yes, silly her, he had been at MIT for the last week... at least.

"Studying! he is away with teachers and mentors."

"Good, that's good, so we are alone tonight."

María walked Frigga to the bar and despite her heels, she had to stand on her tiptoes to rest her elbows comfortably. Frigga was a beautiful damned giraffe and rested an elbow effortlessly while she turned and regarded the gala. María asked for the sweetest cocktail available before looking at Frigga meaningfully.

"I'll have whatever you are having, dear."

They took the fancy colorful glasses to the reception part. There was still much to do before the guests really arrived. María sent everyone here and there. The event slowly took the shape she wanted and Frigga even helped with a few suggestions. María appreciated her point of view much more than all the alphas who had tried to tell her what to do during the whole day. As the sun went down, the white tones that had bothered her so much seemed to mellow.

By the start of the gala, María was content. Things had not been perfect, but she was confident it had been good enough. By the end of the gala, she was glad Frigga had come. The events usually felt exhausting, even the ones she was not hosting, and Frigga had taken some of the attention of the guests, who had been besotted with the Asgardian monarchy there, on Earth, in front of them.

"Well, that went well." Frigga had managed to avoid a guest and sneak by her side. María had a champagne flute, but Frigga had been asking for the same colorful drink for hours. María would be wasted if she had done that, but she took note. 

"Quite well, yes." Better than expected, but saying that would have meant showing weakness.

"I see this event means a lot to you, Maria. It is a pity your family isn't here to support you."

"I'm in their thoughts."

"I don't think so, but I am here, dear, thinking about you and all the things you did here. What would you say if I tell you there is a very nice spot where we can leave all these people and finally talk in private?"

María took a bottle of champagne before following Frigga. For her next trick, she would learn to make cocktails. She could teach Frigga and then they could forget about that elven acrid wine. They decided to hide in the balcony to speak, but also so the press wouldn't see her. If her husband saw her even a bit tipsy again... Well, nothing had happened yet and he longed for another bottle already.

"This is as private as we will manage tonight, queen Frigga."

"Then just Frigga. And... I was being sincere, Maria, I see the kind of organization it takes to manage all these people and command their respect, especially in our position."

"I swear! Frigga! One of them called Howard!" María threw one of her hands in the air. "To ask him! About! the music arrangements! Can you believe it!" She threw both hands in the air. There went the champagne.

She was looking at the wet spots when Frigga's pearly laugh reached her. "Did he even know there would be music?"

"He didn't know there was going to be a gala!"

"How could he not..."

"He thought I was planing some nice little tea party!" Frigga laughed some more, freely, so María went on. "And I said 'have you seen the bills? What exactly did you think I was doing?' And you know what he said?" Frigga was too busy laughing to answer verbally. "He said: 'an _expensive_ little tea party?'"

María didn't know what it was, but she liked this version of Frigga. The champagne, it was probably the bubbles making her look more tolerable. They discussed where they would be sending their children during the summer, the letters were just not enough, but their children were just one topic of a thousand. They discussed their husbands, and living with sharks who wanted one dead, and living in the modern world... Honestly, María would have even forgotten everything about their plan to send Tony with Loki somewhere during summer if Frigga hadn't sent the final details of their plan on a letter some days later.

Plan aside, it had been such a nice evening, that it probably made up for how tiring organizing the gala had been. Maybe Frigga could find the time to visit Earth again.


	8. Facts: Distnce is Paradise

The following summer they were sent to a very small village in Vanaheim to “further their education”. It was bullshit. Tony knew the real reason: the paparazzi had flooded his life since he turned 18, and his parents didn’t want any more risks. They didn’t want their little secret to be made public, and they didn’t want Tony to blow it by spending the summer jumping from bed to bed now that he was legal. Or worse, going straight to the press as he had threatened to do several times until Howard got on his face and said that he shouldn't be making threats if he wasn't prepared to follow through.

Hence the little village, where if Tony caused a scandal the Stark reputation wouldn’t be hurt by it. And with the Vanir, who had a natural tendency to be genderbinarian instead of gendertetra, it meant that they weren’t attuned to hormones and wouldn’t sniff the truth after a shower. In fact, Tony could have walked around naked and smoking, shouting about the end of the world, and the elves wouldn't have been concerned. Breaking the elves' customs, tho? That was an easy way to spend an awful summer, so he learned to respect those at least.

And on top of that, it was such a small village that Loki and Tony couldn’t avoid each other no matter how much they wanted to. They even visited their summer tutors together. They might have deepened their acquaintance through the letters, but being face to face and without parents to anger turned out to be surprisingly awkward. Resourceful as they were, they managed to find their fun in separate sources. Tony made friends with the locals with the same ease as Loki gained their ire with pranks, sometimes blaming Tony for them, which Tony took good-naturedly because he knew where Loki slept in order to retaliate.

The woods and the fields were also vast, and Loki met fewer people there, but those he met were happy of showing him their farming, rural traditional magic, their herb gathering tricks or their... ludic mushrooms in exchange for a little help in the fields and orchards.

Tony found that once a week a peddler came to the village and went back to the bigger, closest city. Tony offered himself to drive the cart to the city while the tired seller slept on the back in exchange for riding with him the day he went back. For a week nobody could see hide nor hair of Tony. Loki was nowhere to be found for the duration of the following week. And still, the elves were not concerned.

Both of them found it funny how they hadn’t warned each other but both of them covered for each other, making up excuses and pretending illnesses to explain their absence. Tony had told Loki a bit of his friend on Earth, Loki shared a bit about his readings, both exchanged a few words about their inventions, but the elven village was far more interesting. Bedding binary people who didn't care if you were alpha or omega was interesting, learning to watch the night sky with spells was fun, sneaking away to see some band called the wild hunt in the middle of the woods was exciting, smoking herbs that made everything taste like cotton candy was new.

In comparison, each other's company felt... mundane. All in all, they would say it was another success in avoidance that summer with small moments of "fuck the avoidance rule".

The little village was relieved when they saw them go.

It could have been just another year, another summer, like the others. Could have, if Loki hadn't found the bottle. He didn't tell anyone about the suppressants he found by the shower one day when he hopped in shortly after Tony. He didn't tell anyone about the myriad things that suddenly made sense, like why their parents wanted them to spend time together. It only augmented his wish to do exactly the opposite of what they wanted. And still, suppressants... Loki would be lying if he denied his jealousy. 

**Author's Note:**

> The people in this fic are not meant to be seen or read as kind role models, find better adults if you see yourself in this situation and don't let yourself live this way.   
> If you see yourself in the parents depicted here, please reconsider your life choices.


End file.
